Eureka Senior Honored for Athletics, Academics

Landon Cleary, a Eureka High School senior, got a nice surprise on Wednesday. As he sat in the bleachers of the school gym with nearly hundred classmates, he found out, along with them, that he was about to be awarded the Army Strong Top Performer of the Month award.

Jim Powers, of 590 The Fan KNFS, said they started the program with the Army in February because they wanted to honor three athletes a month who performed in the classroom, as well as on the court or field.

Powers and Army recruiter, Sgt. Tony Henderson, called Cleary to come down from the bleachers. After the hand-shaking, Cleary was asked to say a few words. The first two that came out were:  "Thank you." Then he said his plans were to study business as Missouri State. As far as basketball goes, he'll be dominating the intramural league.

"I didn't have any idea they were coming, or anything about this," Cleary said. "It's definitely an honor,  just to be honored in front of my fellow students. It's really special to get this award."

Powers said Cleary "lit it up from behind the arc all year long. He's a very deserving recipient...I actually saw Landon play this year, so when I saw that he had made all-conference second team...it was a perfect fit."

Three athletes a month are chosen from eastern Missouri.

Eureka athletic director Jason Green said, "Landon's been a great ambassador for our program, and on top of that, he had a lot of success."

Green said Cleary set records this year for  3-pointers in a game, 3-point percentage for a year, and 3-point percentage for a career. "(He's a) hard-worker and committed, just someone you know you can always depend on."

Cleary made 56 of 127 attempts at 3-pointers in the season; that's 44.09 percent from 3-point range.

Cleary's mother, Deann Cleary, was there, but his father, Rob, was out of town on business. "Landon really notched it up on the court this year, and kept his grades up, and that's not always easy to do,"  she said. "We had seen the article in the 590 The Fan Magazine...but it was a bigger honor than I had realized."

Sgt. Henderson said he got the call Tuesday night to be there to help present the award. "They look at his grades, his performance at school...because they don't give these awards out to just anybody."